Sunday, October 13, 2013

Dorcas Copper

Dorcas Copper
The dorcas copper is a small northern butterfly that is typically found around bogs or other wetland areas in Alaska, Canada, and parts of northern United States. There is typically one brood per summer from June through August. They are very similar looking to the purplish copper.
Dorcas Copper
Females lay their eggs one at a time on the underside of the leaves of their host plant, which are cinquefoils. In the fall the eggs fall to the ground where they will overwinter as eggs. In spring the new caterpillars will emerge and crawl back up the new host plants and begin to eat the leaves.



5 comments:

Gemma Wiseman said...

A neat, tight little cycle of life happening with these guys. So to keep the species alive, there needs to be some target practice skill happening. Lovely photos.

Jama said...

Beautiful butterflies!

Joanne Olivieri said...

Beautifully detailed and with gorgeous colors.

Hannah said...

What exquisite photos of the little butterfly. They don't occur in my area so it's nice to see photos of them.

lorik said...

Your posts are always so interesting as well as good to look at!Thanks so much for joining in on the fun at Mandarin Orange Monday:)